This is part 2 of my banana 911. I had guests coming over and I thought a good use for some of the bananas would be to make banana bread. I have had my eye on a couple of recipes, ChefMom over at Eat play love is on a quest to find if her friend Doree’s banana bread is the ultimate recipe out there , Linda over at  Savoring every bite  posted an amazing whole wheat applesauce banana bread and Tanja over at Tanja’s cooking corner had posted her recipe for a nutty moist banana bread that I had bookmarked immediately.

I decided to go with Tanja’s recipe today and the result was heaven in every bite.The bread was moist and yummy and flavorful but the most amazing part of it is the smell. When it was in the oven the house was filled with a cloud of tantalizing banana smell..it was unbelievable. The kids could barely wait for it to cool.They ate it plain,I ate it with a little spicy chocolate banana jam (double dose of banana:)) and it was amazing.The guest raved about it too (which is always a good thing :)).

If you have not been to Tanja’s blog I strongly urge you to. She is really talented, has original scrumptious recipes and stunning pictures that will make you hungry. She recently started posting her recipes in english in addition to other languages (didn’t I tell you she is super talented).

My only modification to the recipe is using dates instead of cranberries

Nutty banana bread (recipe from Tanja’s cooking corner)

Ingredients (for loaf pan 12 x 35 cm):

4 very ripe bananas

100 g chopped hazelnuts

70 g chopped almonds

100g sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp Vanilla sugar

1 pinch salt

5 tablespoons sunflower oil

250 g all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

150 ml buttermilk

50 g cranberries (dried)

Preparation:

1. Grease and flour a loaf tin. Preheat oven to 175 Celsius.

2. Peel Bananas and cut into pieces. Chop Hazelnuts and almonds (or buy the already chopped ones :D)

3.Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Keep aside.

Beat egg, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt and oil in another bowl until pale and well combined. Add flour mixture to egg/oil mixture and mix well, adding buttermilk as you go along and then the mashed bananas.

Beat at highest speed (approx.one minute) until foamy.

4. Combine the flour mix with the chopped nuts and the butter milk. Then stir into the egg-sugar mixture.

5. Pour batter into the prepared loaf tin.

6. Baking time: 45-55 minutes or until skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. If the top gets too brown before its done tent it with a piece of foil.

7.Let it cool, and serve! 🙂